King James Version

The Book
of Ezra

Chapter 10

Now when Ezra
had prayed, and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before
the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great
congregation of men and women and children: for the people wept very sore.

And Shechaniah the son of
Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said unto Ezra, We have
trespassed against our God, and have taken strange wives of the people of the
land: yet now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing.

Now therefore let us make a covenant
with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them, according
to the counsel of my lord, and of those that tremble at the commandment of our
God; and let it be done according to the law.

Then Ezra rose
up from before the house of God, and went into the chamber of Johanan the son
of Eliashib: and when he came thither, he did eat no bread, nor drink water:
for he mourned because of the transgression of them that had been carried
away.

And that whosoever would not
come within three days, according to the counsel of the princes and the elders,
all his substance should be forfeited, and himself separated from the
congregation of those that had been carried away.

Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered
themselves together unto Jerusalem within three days. It was the ninth month,
on the twentieth day of the month; and all the people sat in the street of the
house of God, trembling because of this matter, and for the great rain.

Let now our rulers of all the congregation stand, and let all
them which have taken strange wives in our cities come at appointed times, and
with them the elders of every city, and the judges thereof, until the fierce
wrath of our God for this matter be turned from us.

And the children of the captivity did so. And Ezra the priest, with certain
chief of the fathers, after the house of their fathers, and all of them by
their names, were separated, and sat down in the first day of the tenth month
to examine the matter.